Portside Tower tenants speak, after over three years of attending Jersey City Council meetings demanding enforcement on rent control city code. (Jordan Coll / SOC Images)
Downtown Jersey City’s skyline has two towers overlooking Liberty State Park, the 19-story West tower and its 26-story sibling at 155 Washington Street, together it’s better known as Portside Towers.
For years they’ve been less a residential complex and more a recurring character at council meetings, remaining one of the subjects of packed marathon council meetings. Behind their story is a $400 million federal class-action suit and a rent-control fight that has spanned two mayoral administrations.
The Rent Protection Special Investigation Committee, a committee brought forth by former Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh, gathered for the first time on July 27. But this wasn’t the beginning of the story. It was, for many of the tenants in the room, closer to a reckoning—a chance to put years of frustration on the official record.
“I need to know what is my legal rent as I get increases,” said Dan Feldman, a tenant at Portside Towers who acknowledged to the council that he has attended 48 council meetings and said his rent was over 30 percent back in 2022, as previously reported by the Hudson Reporter.
According to Jersey City’s municipal rent control ordinance Ch.260, housing laws limit an annual rental increase to 4%. In a legal herald for tenants, the city’s Rent Leveling Board voted unanimously 6-0 that both Portside Towers are subject to rent control.
“That question is two years old,” he said and still remains unsure on what he should legally be charged for rent.
Two meetings are set to take place under the newly established investigative committee: one was on July 27 and the next is set on Aug. 10 at the City Annex on Martin Luther King Drive.
What Happened At The Meeting
Eleven Portside tenants took turns at the microphone, articulating years of complaints that went nowhere: rent hikes that outpaced what the law allows, buildings without the uniform security tenants say they were promised and code violations that lingered without consequence.
Shannon Ray, a nurse who lives in the East Tower of the Portside building, touted her wage increase every year, but said that her rent, “has effectively wiped those wages and it is very distressing.”
“I am still paying a rent that nobody has confirmed is legal,” she added, citing that in her email she requested a response on either items: a document showing proof of exemption claim on rent control or a lawful determination that the building does not carry a rent control exemption status.
She told the council that she is still waiting on those responses, which she claimed she emailed back in 2023 to the director of housing, at the time Dinah Hendon, who carried the position, but is now under Annisia Cialone, as part of the Solomon administration.
Rent control comes down to a legally prescribed amount of rent that is capped on a house or apartment. High rise developments are in tandem with Jersey City’s housing reality, with the average of 13 homes built for every 1,000 residents.
In February 2026, Mayor James Solomon ordered a rent control audit by executive order and called for maximum penalties for housing violations, citing the affordability crisis. The audit fulfills a campaign pledge to enforce rent control through transparency and accountability, with monthly progress updates on findings and enforcement.
A recent video circulated by the city announced that 500 building inspections in the last month had been completed on the city’s end under the Division of Code Compliance,
City Council, Tenants Continue Their Unanswered Questions
What stops the city from fulfilling its own rent control ordinance?
Slice of Culture reached out to the director of the Office of Landlord Tenant Relations Shyronne Richardson, but he declined to comment on the story. A new director has taken up the ranks of the role, in an internal email provided to Slice of Culture, Colleen Smith has been placed as director since Aug. 3.
Slice of Culture reached out to the mayor’s office for a comment regarding the name of the newly appointed director, but was told next week the city would be making an announcement to the public at-large.
The council pried on the question of inviting landlords to attend these hearings and present a line of questioning, mixed in with tenants expressing their living and rent pricing grievances, at the Aug. 27 rent hearing meeting in council chambers.
“What about other landlords that are in question?” asked Councilman at-Large Michael Griffin, calling landlords to come forth to city council and address issues brought on by tenants.
Ward E Councilwoman Eleana Little hinted at exercising subpoena powers to bring in landlords and perhaps previous members of the council to come through council chambers to address the public at-large. “So we could hypothetically subpoena a landlord?”
Corporate counsel was not present to indicate a response to determine whether the department can issue subpoena orders to landlords directly.
“There is a failure of rent protections for tenants in Jersey City,” chimed in Ward D Councilman Jake Ephros, adding that tenants are put in a trivial spot when their rent is not properly disclosed by landlords. “You are not hearing that landlords are inadequately protected by the landlord tenant office.”
But the city’s lack of enforcement on rent control ordinances amidst the city’s $255 million fiscal crisis and proposed 15% tax hike, has capitulated a tale of two cities: the ones who can afford Jersey City and those who cannot.
Kevin Weller, who is the President of the Portside Towers East Tenant Association, drummed on what earlier Portside tenants had acknowledged about their rent, it had never been made known to them.
“Everyone is in limbo and the city is the only party that can end it,” he said in front of four members of the council.
He emphasized that it marked four years since he filed a petition on behalf of Portside tenants sounding the alarm on illegal rental increases pursued by the landlord, Equity Residential. In the claim, the lease started April 19, 2021 at a base of $4,534, the following year on July 19 that was $6,102 or a 35% rental increase, according to the lease agreement shared to Slice of Culture.
He added that his rent, along with tenants of Portside, have gone up over $1,500 per month ever since he filed his petition against the city for illegal rent charges back in 2022.
“Has any rebate been ordered under Chapter 260?” asked Weller, who filed a class-action lawsuit, a case which finds itself in federal court seeking financial reparations of over $400 million in legal damages, including alleged violations under the NJ Consumer Fraud Act.
Weller claims that the total accrued debt of uncollected fines due to daily violations can be up to $5.2 billion in landlord violations in 470 days since Portside tenants began monitoring the rent fees; the ordinance collecting a minimum penalty fine of $100 and up to a maximum of $2,000.
The Solomon administration signed off on an ordinance last year that would set a legal mandatory minimum fee of $100 per day for housing code violations. Both Portside Towers have 527 units, with Weller noting that as of now Equity Residential has 88 housing violations related complaints.
Slice of Culture reached out to Equity Residential for comment on the nature of the investigative committee or the timeline of the advocacy led by Portside Towers but none have been provided since the time of this reporting.
Across Jersey City, tenants are faced with a similar disarray when it comes to quality of life: crumbling housing conditions, unresponsive landlords, disputed rent balance and the threat of eviction.
One tenant, Brenda—who only provided her first name—said she has gone without a formal lease for years while dealing with unresolved maintenance problems, including faulty smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. She went further, alleging her landlord was deliberately targeting Black single mothers — many of whom, she said, were too fearful of retaliation to speak up at the meeting.
She made known two issues with her landlord, among other items. “We do not have the emergency contact information for no owner or appointed housing representative,” said Brenda, “I think that is very unfair.”
The Rent Investigative Committee is set to have a second meeting hearing tenants out throughout Jersey City on tenant/landlord issues on Aug. 10 at 4 Jackson Square, 39 Kearny Avenue.
